Drink at the Newman Arms

A busy little free house in Fitzrovia, just north of Oxford Street, the Newman Arms was built around 1730 and served as a chandler, an ironmonger, a picture framers and a brothel before finding its new calling as a tavern around 1860. Since then, we are told, it's played host to the likes of George Orwell and Dylan Thomas and - for those with sharper cultural antennae - appeared in both the The Bill and the Ali G show.

Today, it's a characterful pub, run by three generations of the Bird family and is pleasantly eccentric, with a typically eclectic West End crowd, an annual "Soup Off" and an upstairs Pie Room serving a range of pies that were sadly unavailable at the time of your author's recent visit.

For more, see http://newmanarms.co.uk/